Musical Adventures

For Mehldau and Thile, a shared passion for musical adventures
By: David Weininger

Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile first met in August 2006. They were brought together by Robert Hurwitz, president of Nonesuch Records, who was at that point wooing Thile — a mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who’d achieved success with the bluegrass band Nickel Creek — to join the label. Thile was playing a show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom with the band that would, more or less, become Punch Brothers. In an apparent attempt to convince Thile of Nonesuch’s bona fides, Hurwitz brought Mehldau, one of the world’s most influential jazz pianists, to the show.

Thile already held Mehldau in high regard, and on seeing him appear backstage after the show, instantly became “retroactively nervous” about his playing, he said recently. “Like, what did he just hear?” Mehldau, for his part, later said the show made him “a fan, right there and then.”